Mike Vardaro
@echinocrepis.bsky.social
Marine biologist, invertebrate enthusiast, pop culture nerd, and Philly native. Sea urchins are cool. [he/him]
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
UW RCA student worker Jolee Thirtyacre and one of our VISIONS’25 students assisting with CTD water sample processing. VISIONS students experience life at sea, stand ROV watches, and assist with many aspects of science conducted onboard the ship. 🌊🚢🧪
PC: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25.
PC: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25.
November 21, 2025 at 7:34 PM
UW RCA student worker Jolee Thirtyacre and one of our VISIONS’25 students assisting with CTD water sample processing. VISIONS students experience life at sea, stand ROV watches, and assist with many aspects of science conducted onboard the ship. 🌊🚢🧪
PC: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25.
PC: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25.
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
On October 24, 2025 the RCA team participated in One Ocean Week Seattle aboard the historic sailing ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl from Bergen, Norway! Over 200 people came to view poster presentations and demonstration tables-ours included! 🌊🚢🧪
November 14, 2025 at 11:56 PM
On October 24, 2025 the RCA team participated in One Ocean Week Seattle aboard the historic sailing ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl from Bergen, Norway! Over 200 people came to view poster presentations and demonstration tables-ours included! 🌊🚢🧪
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
September 24, 2025 at 8:30 PM
I get that the news cycle is packed right now, but I just heard from a colleague at the Smithsonian that this is fully a GIANT SQUID BEING EATEN BY A SPERM WHALE and it’s possibly the first ever confirmed video according to a friend at NOAA
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
10 YEAR OLD ME IS LOSING HER MIND (a thread 🧵)
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
ROV video of an absolute mob of sablefish (black cod) swirling around the OOI-RCA benthic experiment package (BEP) at our Oregon Offshore site, about 40 miles offshore and 582 m deep. The yellow frame contains 8 different cabled oceanographic sensors. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1741, V25 🌊🧪🚢
August 28, 2025 at 6:34 AM
ROV video of an absolute mob of sablefish (black cod) swirling around the OOI-RCA benthic experiment package (BEP) at our Oregon Offshore site, about 40 miles offshore and 582 m deep. The yellow frame contains 8 different cabled oceanographic sensors. Credit: UW/NSF-OOI/WHOI, J2-1741, V25 🌊🧪🚢
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
The UW-RCA group just spent about a week turning OOI equipment at Axial Seamount, an active volcano about 200 miles off the Oregon coast. The seafloor in the caldera is covered with fantastic basalt formations, hydrothermal flows, and unique biological communities. 🌊🧪🚢
August 26, 2025 at 10:35 PM
The UW-RCA group just spent about a week turning OOI equipment at Axial Seamount, an active volcano about 200 miles off the Oregon coast. The seafloor in the caldera is covered with fantastic basalt formations, hydrothermal flows, and unique biological communities. 🌊🧪🚢
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
The OOI-RCA cruise has been conducting multiple dives at Axial Seamount (an underwater volcano off the Oregon coast), including deployments at several different hydrothermal vent fields. The weather has been excellent for ROV operations - hopefully that will hold for the next few days!
August 22, 2025 at 5:18 AM
The OOI-RCA cruise has been conducting multiple dives at Axial Seamount (an underwater volcano off the Oregon coast), including deployments at several different hydrothermal vent fields. The weather has been excellent for ROV operations - hopefully that will hold for the next few days!
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
The OOI-RCA Shallow Profiler mooring platforms sit at 200 meters depth, over time becoming midwater islands of biodiversity as organisms like feather stars and nudibranchs settle on the hard surfaces of the flotation and instrument housings. 🌊🚢🧪
August 18, 2025 at 3:06 AM
The OOI-RCA Shallow Profiler mooring platforms sit at 200 meters depth, over time becoming midwater islands of biodiversity as organisms like feather stars and nudibranchs settle on the hard surfaces of the flotation and instrument housings. 🌊🚢🧪
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
The 11th O&M Expedition for the cabled component of the NSF-OOI has begun, 7/31 - 8/31/2025! Live video from the R/V Atlantis & Jason ROV can be seen here: interactiveoceans.washington.edu/visions25-li...
🌊🧪🚢
PC 1: J. Tilley, UW-APL, V25.
PC 2: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25
🌊🧪🚢
PC 1: J. Tilley, UW-APL, V25.
PC 2: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25
August 9, 2025 at 6:39 PM
The 11th O&M Expedition for the cabled component of the NSF-OOI has begun, 7/31 - 8/31/2025! Live video from the R/V Atlantis & Jason ROV can be seen here: interactiveoceans.washington.edu/visions25-li...
🌊🧪🚢
PC 1: J. Tilley, UW-APL, V25.
PC 2: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25
🌊🧪🚢
PC 1: J. Tilley, UW-APL, V25.
PC 2: M. Elend, University of Washington, V25
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
It's finally out! 18 months in the making, @fieseler.bsky.social's outstanding documentary on deep-sea mining and an exploration of why some stories capture the public imagination while others don't.
Nodules: Deep-Sea Life Giver or Key to Our Energy Future?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jcm...
Nodules: Deep-Sea Life Giver or Key to Our Energy Future?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jcm...
Nodules: Deep-Sea Life Giver or Key to Our Energy Future?
YouTube video by Scientific American
www.youtube.com
July 24, 2025 at 2:09 PM
It's finally out! 18 months in the making, @fieseler.bsky.social's outstanding documentary on deep-sea mining and an exploration of why some stories capture the public imagination while others don't.
Nodules: Deep-Sea Life Giver or Key to Our Energy Future?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jcm...
Nodules: Deep-Sea Life Giver or Key to Our Energy Future?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jcm...
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
Drumroll please…
This year’s advent calendars…
Designed by @ehrenenglish.bsky.social…
Will be…
EEL FACTS!!!!
Get one at squidfacts.bigcartel.com
Advent calendars keep Skype a scientist running (weird funding strategy, but hey! It works!), so share these far and wide ❤️
This year’s advent calendars…
Designed by @ehrenenglish.bsky.social…
Will be…
EEL FACTS!!!!
Get one at squidfacts.bigcartel.com
Advent calendars keep Skype a scientist running (weird funding strategy, but hey! It works!), so share these far and wide ❤️
July 15, 2025 at 2:25 PM
Drumroll please…
This year’s advent calendars…
Designed by @ehrenenglish.bsky.social…
Will be…
EEL FACTS!!!!
Get one at squidfacts.bigcartel.com
Advent calendars keep Skype a scientist running (weird funding strategy, but hey! It works!), so share these far and wide ❤️
This year’s advent calendars…
Designed by @ehrenenglish.bsky.social…
Will be…
EEL FACTS!!!!
Get one at squidfacts.bigcartel.com
Advent calendars keep Skype a scientist running (weird funding strategy, but hey! It works!), so share these far and wide ❤️
No Kings (Oakland, CA)
June 14, 2025 at 11:54 PM
No Kings (Oakland, CA)
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
The EPR is erupting! www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/s...
Volcanic Eruption in Deep Ocean Ridge Is Witnessed by Scientists for First Time
Researchers diving in a submersible in the eastern Pacific realized that the landscape they had studied the day before had been glassed over by fresh lava.
www.nytimes.com
May 2, 2025 at 6:27 PM
The EPR is erupting! www.nytimes.com/2025/05/02/s...
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
I don't know who needs to hear this, but:
1) Megalodon was real, but is definitely super-duper extinct now. (If it wasn't, there'd be evidence, and there isn't any).
2) Mermaids were never real.
3) Narwhal and giant squid are real and you get to live on Earth at the same time as them!
1) Megalodon was real, but is definitely super-duper extinct now. (If it wasn't, there'd be evidence, and there isn't any).
2) Mermaids were never real.
3) Narwhal and giant squid are real and you get to live on Earth at the same time as them!
March 20, 2025 at 12:48 PM
I don't know who needs to hear this, but:
1) Megalodon was real, but is definitely super-duper extinct now. (If it wasn't, there'd be evidence, and there isn't any).
2) Mermaids were never real.
3) Narwhal and giant squid are real and you get to live on Earth at the same time as them!
1) Megalodon was real, but is definitely super-duper extinct now. (If it wasn't, there'd be evidence, and there isn't any).
2) Mermaids were never real.
3) Narwhal and giant squid are real and you get to live on Earth at the same time as them!
I’m anti death penalty, but I just learned about a person who RIPS OUT THE PAGES OF BOOKS AS HE READS THEM, leaving an empty shell when he’s done. So I’m revising my position.
January 13, 2025 at 5:44 PM
I’m anti death penalty, but I just learned about a person who RIPS OUT THE PAGES OF BOOKS AS HE READS THEM, leaving an empty shell when he’s done. So I’m revising my position.
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
UFO 50 is an astonishing accomplishment — a pack of fifty full-fledged games that may make you nostalgic for a 1980s video game console that never actually existed. This week's column: www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
This New Video Game Is Actually 50 New Video Games
UFO 50 might make you nostalgic for games that never actually existed
www.bloomberg.com
September 20, 2024 at 5:05 PM
UFO 50 is an astonishing accomplishment — a pack of fifty full-fledged games that may make you nostalgic for a 1980s video game console that never actually existed. This week's column: www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #362,935! Apparently. I should maybe check in more…
September 18, 2024 at 5:03 AM
Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #362,935! Apparently. I should maybe check in more…
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
We’re posting tiny cups?! Here are the recent ones my spouse @echinocrepis.bsky.social made. The rest are in a box somewhere. I love them
September 18, 2024 at 4:41 AM
We’re posting tiny cups?! Here are the recent ones my spouse @echinocrepis.bsky.social made. The rest are in a box somewhere. I love them
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
Someone said it was post videos of your pets day?
Here is Zuko cocking his head every time I say “walk”
Here is Zuko cocking his head every time I say “walk”
September 12, 2024 at 2:20 AM
Someone said it was post videos of your pets day?
Here is Zuko cocking his head every time I say “walk”
Here is Zuko cocking his head every time I say “walk”
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
Zuko refuses to ride in the buggy unless the top is down.
September 14, 2024 at 10:26 PM
Zuko refuses to ride in the buggy unless the top is down.
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
10 years ago, gay Americans could not get married and have it count in all 50 states
20 years ago, you could be made uninsurable because you got sick once
30 years ago, HIV was a death sentence
40 years ago, acid rain was still a problem
Dedicated public servants keep pushing good things forward
20 years ago, you could be made uninsurable because you got sick once
30 years ago, HIV was a death sentence
40 years ago, acid rain was still a problem
Dedicated public servants keep pushing good things forward
June 16, 2024 at 11:50 PM
10 years ago, gay Americans could not get married and have it count in all 50 states
20 years ago, you could be made uninsurable because you got sick once
30 years ago, HIV was a death sentence
40 years ago, acid rain was still a problem
Dedicated public servants keep pushing good things forward
20 years ago, you could be made uninsurable because you got sick once
30 years ago, HIV was a death sentence
40 years ago, acid rain was still a problem
Dedicated public servants keep pushing good things forward
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
The Federal Trade Commission, of all entities, is out here writing absolute bangers about AI snake oil. www.ftc.gov/business-gui...
June 17, 2024 at 7:37 PM
The Federal Trade Commission, of all entities, is out here writing absolute bangers about AI snake oil. www.ftc.gov/business-gui...
An historic day. Vastly improved my mood!
May 30, 2024 at 9:49 PM
An historic day. Vastly improved my mood!
Reposted by Mike Vardaro
Zuko pup thinks that we control the rain. He hates it so much and doesn’t understand why we don’t just make it stop. It hurts my heart
May 4, 2024 at 6:29 PM
Zuko pup thinks that we control the rain. He hates it so much and doesn’t understand why we don’t just make it stop. It hurts my heart
Blue Eyed Samurai on Netflix was really amazing: beautiful animation, great writing, cool action. Wasn’t super expecting all the sex and gore, but if you’re okay with mature subject matter it’s a great show.
February 19, 2024 at 5:59 AM
Blue Eyed Samurai on Netflix was really amazing: beautiful animation, great writing, cool action. Wasn’t super expecting all the sex and gore, but if you’re okay with mature subject matter it’s a great show.